1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to obtaining information and, in particular, searching, retrieving and evaluating information on a computer network such as the internet.
2. Background
The challenge of making the internet more useful for users is quickly and efficiently obtaining information suitable for a particular user. This is challenging due to the large amount of information on the internet and the diverse type of users. Current search engines and web crawlers such as Yahoo|, Alta-Vista, and Excite are used to assist users in locating information or media files based on subject matter. For example, a user enters specific subject key words using selected subject matter categories or data bases in order to hopefully retrieve information or user resource locator ("URL") addresses which have information of interest to the user. The search engines do not take into account other information, other than subject matter, which may be used in retrieving information.
Current search engines do not take into account characteristics of the user that could better customize retrieval and evaluation of information for the user. These may include personal vocabulary, sentence characteristic preferences, descriptor preferences, depth of interest in given topics and user-related knowledge. If a user enters a subject key word or subject matter into a search engine, many retrieved URL addresses may be irrelevant to a particular user. For example, a particular user may be a nine-year-old child wanting to learn about butterflies who has distinguishing characteristics from another user such as a post-graduate entomology student. Both users are interested in the same subject, but each desires different levels of sophistication in information retrieved.
Users typically have a variation of personal characteristics which define who they are and what they enjoy. These personal characteristics include general interests and identity information, attitude and aptitude information, personal heroes and media comprehension. Characteristics regarding a specific user are not used by current search engines in retrieving prospective information.
Further, current search engines only examine text data and ignore other media types such as sound and video files that contain voice information. Current search engines do not convert the voice information into text and evaluate the converted sound file. This is a significant shortcoming since a much of the information on the internet is not text data. Users typically find sound and video presentations popular, easy and efficient ways of interacting and obtaining information and, in most cases, probably prefer this media over text.
The current search engines do not collect information generated by the user's selections of retrieved media files to evaluate retrieved media files in the current session as well as later sessions. Every time a user looks through a list of media files and/or a brief description of media files, what the user selects and doesn't select can be used to determine the user's interests. Every time a user interacts with a media file, by choosing to read it, print it, or skip it, the user is identifying a level of interest in the particular media file.
Users search for information on the internet for various reasons. These reasons effect the type of information in which they are interested. For example, a Ph.D. student may search for information used in his thesis and also search for recreation. There is presently no way to capture these personal motivations and use them in searches for information on the internet.
Finally, current search engines do not generally mark up media files such that a user can efficiently locate information of interest.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide an apparatus, article of manufacture and method for retrieving and evaluating information on the internet using user-specific characteristics. These characteristics may include general interest information, identity information, attitude and aptitude information, personal heroes, media compatibility and media comprehension ability. The apparatus, article of manufacture and method should also take into account user selections and interest in specific information in retrieving further information. Text, sound and video files should all be evaluated based on user characteristics. Also, the reason or motivation for searching the internet should be used in searching for information. The invention should also mark points of interest in media files such that a user can quickly locate information of interest in lengthy media files.